Malawi life

Hey all its the Malawi team checking in.
We have not given you a full update yet so here goes!
The three of us, Tracy, Amy and Sami met up with 22 other interns. Most of them are from the US but we have 8 from Malawi who are amazing help to us and its been great getting to know them!

Our weeks are really busy. Monday Wednesday and Friday mornings we do our service projects for COTN ( the organization we came through). Those afternoons we go into Mgwai a village that backs the compound we stay in. There are a couple hundred kids there that we get to play with and see God working through. We give a bible lesson at the start of the week and then follow up the other two days!

Tuesday and Thursday mornings we visit our host family, which has been an amazing experience. With our family we learn real Malawian skills. We attempt to carry water on our heads, “mud floors”, wash pans with dirt… oxymoron?… maybe. We are experts at washing clothes by hand! We can also make our own corn flour! Those afternoons we do our “personal ministry”. For some this means working with widows, mentoring or doing art projects. However for the three of us it means doing sports ministry. This includes going into a village and building the excitement around the soccer organization COTN has created. We give a bible lesson each visit and show Gods love by just playing with the kids.

Our living situation is pretty great! We have running water… most of the time. Sometimes its even hot! Our electricity comes and goes, dinner seems to be the best time for it to go out! We live in a single story dorm with 16 beds total in two rooms. We have a bathroom and a “laundry room”. The boys have the same set up. We have a big brick wall that surrounds the Njewa compound and the compound next door “Salima” houses huts for the one week teams as well as our lunch hall. Food has been a unique experience for us. We eat nsima, which is corn flour and water boiled to the consistency of mashed potatoes. You use it to pick up the “greens” which are veggies boiled down to nothing. We also have a good amount of rice and beans as well as corn porridge. Most of the Americans put peanut butter on everything in order to get some nutrients! We will probably never want to see it again when we get home! One of our best experiences was going into the market on a food hunt. We were given a Malawian budget and a shopping list in Chichewa. We had one Malawian with us and were dropped off near town. We all made it back, nearly all of us with the live chicken that was on the list. We then had to kill it, gut it and prepare dinner… eeek! We really are true Malawians! Some of us our vegetarians now!

Well God is growing us each and every day and we can see him working in the kids! Here are some prayer requests:
1) Health! We have gotten a bad bout of illness. All three of us have been fighting sickness but have come through it for the most part!

2) Here are some Malawian kids that have touched our heart, so pray for their health and that God would open their heart to his message: Krissy, Jennifer, Aisha, Ellen, Martha and Wezz

3) Team Dynamics. With 17 girls in one little dorm and no break we can get frustrated easily, especially with people getting sick!

4) Continued strength for ministry and connection with kids!